|
|
|
|
Check out Eagle’s Job Centre for the best in IT job opportunities and The Eagle Blog for our CEO’s views on the industry, business, and life! |
In this issue: 4 Industry News |
Three years ago, in February 2007 there was plenty of M&A action and the big news was the Oracle purchase of Hyperion for $3.3 billion. There was also some big layoffs with both Nortel (2,900 people) and Alcatel-Lucent (12,000) announcing layoffs in their ongoing attempts to fix their respective woes. In February 2008, Nortel was still announcing layoffs and the news centred around economic uncertainty. Last year, in February 2009, the news was once again all about layoffs and economic uncertainty. Nortel, in addition to their layoffs, sold their Alteon asset for less than $18 million, which they had bought for $7 billion nine years previously!
All of which brings us to February 2010. February has not been a busy month for M&A activity in a couple of years now, and this year is no exception. Close to home for me was Manpower’s acquisition of Comsys which will see their US professional staffing capability notably improved, and may have some spillover into Canada. Google continued its moves into social networking with the acquisition of Aardvark in addition to its BUZZ offering. Oracle purchased a couple of smaller entities, now that its big Sun purchase is all done. IBM bought a small network software company that focuses on the telco vertical and Sybase bought a company that has a strong foothold in the financial services vertical.
There are signs around the world that economies are recovering from the depression. Canada gained jobs in January (mostly part-time, but at least growth, not more losses), the UK is seeing strong demand for permanent staff and Spherion tell us that US worker optimism is up.
Certainly Eagle is seeing increased activity in most markets and discussions amongst my peers in the staffing industry would support the opinion that the recovery continues in the right direction and (fingers crossed) no signs of a relapse. How governments cope with their deficits (Canada’s is projected at $55.9 billion) and whether all levels of government will be pragmatic about new legislation (such as the proposed spam laws at the Federal level) will have a big impact on business’ ability to keep the recovery going. Just because McGuinty’s Ontario government would not listen to industry and have created the “have not” province of Ontario, it doesn’t mean that Harper needs to make us a “have not” country!
I’m an optimist and the world’s economies is recovering…Canada is right there too!
Walk Fast and Smile!
For more stories and the details behind the above snippets, click here.
IT JOB MARKET ACROSS CANADA – MINI UPDATE
General Observations:
“Slow but steady” continues to be the message as the Canadian economy recovers. There are plenty of good indicators demonstrating that things are heading in the right direction, but the stability of World economies has already proven to be fragile so we remain cautiously optimistic!
When I wrote this update three months ago, the TSX was at 11,600 (a 12 month high at the time) but last month it dropped back a little and this month it is back up at 12,100. The economy is like that…Canada gained 20,000 jobs in February and has gained 159,000 jobs since July 2009, but having said that 417,000 jobs were lost between October 2008 and July 2009. This means that we are recovering but we have significant gains still to make! This month our industry published its first staffing index that showed the staffing industry is still down 30% from its high in October 2008, but is up 14% from its low in May 2009!
Here at Eagle, we are continuing to see an uptick in resource requests, both contract and permanent, both on the Technology side and in Finance & Accounting. Clients across most industry sectors are hiring again, but cautiously and being careful not to overextend themselves beyond their current lean staffing levels.
More Specifically:
The GTA (Greater Toronto Area) is very active with hiring demand continuing to increase, and for the first time we are seeing signs that good candidates are getting multiple offers. While rates remain fairly steady, some clients are being disappointed when their candidate takes another offer because they were slow in making their hiring decision. The banks are very busy, the telcos are very busy, the Ontario provincial government is also very busy and we are also seeing some of the system integrators increasing their demand.
Western Canada has picked up significantly, with Calgary clearly the hottest market, but there are definite signs of life in Edmonton and Vancouver too. The provincial governments in the West are still tentative with budget cuts and deficit fighting measures in play, but the oil and gas sector and the system integrators are getting quite busy.
When I talk about Eastern Canada, for Eagle that really means Ottawa and Montreal. Montreal seems to have become quite busy in February and like Toronto it is the financial sector and the telcos that seem to be driving demand. Ottawa has been quiet but signs are that Federal Government budgets are not going to be slashed this year, which creates an expectation that business will be picking up as we speak.
The following are some facts/indicators we are watching as of time of writing:
- The price of oil is a little over $82 a barrel which is up $10 in the last month…suggesting perhaps the oil sector might be ready to spend again!
- Natural Gas prices are trending down again as the weather improves, but Encana did announce it will be doubling production…mixed signals?
- The TSX seems to be doing well, currently around 12,100…up from 11,200 a month ago, a very positive sign.
- The Canadian dollar is very strong, currently about 99cc US. Not always a good thing for Canadian business, but a positive economic indicator.
- Prime remains at 2.25%, making borrowing inexpensive. This is good for when companies feel optimistic enough to invest…of course Carney has only promised to hold those rates until July!
- Canada added 20,000 jobs in February, having added 60,000 full time jobs and lost about 40,000 part time jobs.
- Alberta’s provincial government continues to grapple with its unusual situation of a $7B deficit, and the requisite cuts that go with that.
- We are seeing a pickup in activity in most sectors…banks, energy companies, and telcos in particular. There is also some pickup in Municipal, Provincial and Federal Government activity.
- The Canadian government is not expected to drastically reduce its spending this year, which is good news for anyone dependent upon the Feds for business.
- Canada’s new Staffing Index was released showing that temporary staffing levels are still down 30% from the peak of October 2008.
In Summary:
No really big changes from previous months, just a slow steady increase in activity and no signs of a double dip recession…fingers crossed!
The Canadian economy is more and more a knowledge worker economy, hence the demand will increase for skilled workers. People who cannot bring value in the knowledge economy will struggle. For the next few months, I also think many companies will maintain their very lean structure which means that co-op or summer jobs may be scarce this year and new grads will likely struggle to find employment initially.
The good/bad news is that as long as this recovery continues, the Canadian economy will create a huge demand for talent and we will return to talent shortages and eventually labor shortages. Then we face a new set of issues…but I’ll take those rather than recession any day!
Toyota Recall Isn’t the Biggest — Yet
The growing crisis could put the Japanese carmaker on top of an embarrassing list. More…
10 Gadget Patents That Would Make Awesome Products
Clever, creative, bizarre — are some of the adjectives that could be used to describe these ten gadget patents, from both famously inventive companies and lone geniuses. More…
Everything You Need to Know About Buying the Perfect Laptop
Buying a new notebook can be tough because you have so many options to consider, and no shortage of reasons for purchasing one. More…
What You Don’t Know About Office 2010
The logo is gone and the File menu returns but in many different colours. More…
15 Most Aggravating Things on the Web and How to Handle Them
Here are 15 of the most annoying things on the Internet, and how to work around, ignore, improve or fix them. More…
Philippines Government Change Could Hurt BPO
With its “chief engineer” set to step down, will the country continue to focus on becoming North America’s business process outsourcing destination of choice? More…
What a CIO Should Know: All CIO Blogs At AllTop
Our monthly roundup of must-attend industry events, links, educational videos and other resources to help Canadian CIOs succeed. In this edition: A new online service that’s aggregating senior IT executive opinions. More…
For a listing of Eagle’s latest job postings, please visit Eagle’s Job Centre. In addition to searching for the latest jobs, Eagle’s Job Centre gives you the ability to create your profile, update your profile, update your resume and search all jobs.
Eagle is always looking to meet new contractors who have the skills that match our clients’ needs. If we place your qualified referral on contract, we will happily say thank you to the tune of $500.
For more information, please refer to our website or contact the National Eagle Staffing Solutions Team (NESST) at 1-866-78NESST (63778) or via email at NESST@eagleonline.com.
Have a comment or question about the newsletter? Please send it to: feedback@eagleonline.com.
